NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 729 



nelli this was hardly to be expected : the Roman authorities, see- 

 ing the danger of such plain revelations in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, even when coupled with such devout explanations, put 

 the book under the ban, though not before it had been spread 

 throughout the world in various translations. Father Hue was 

 sent on no more missions. 



Yet there came even more significant discoveries, especially 

 bearing upon the claims of that great branch of the Church 

 which supposes itself to possess a divine safeguard against error 

 in belief. For now was brought to light by literary research the 

 irrefragable evidence that the great Buddha Sakya Muni him- 

 self had been canonized and enrolled among the Christian saints 

 whose intercession may be invoked, and in whose honor images, 

 altars, and chapels may be erected; and this, not only by the 

 usage of the mediaeval Church, Greek and Roman, but by the 

 special and infallible sanction of a long series of Popes, from the 

 end of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth a sanc- 

 tion granted under one of the most curious errors in human his- 

 tory. The story throws an additional light upon the way in 

 which many of the beliefs of Christendom have been developed, 

 and especially upon the way in which they have been influenced 

 from the seats of older religions. 



Early in the seventh century there was composed, as is now 

 believed, at the Convent of St. Saba near Jerusalem, a pious ro- 

 mance entitled Barlaam and Josaphat, the latter personage, the 

 hero of the story, being represented as a Hindu prince converted 

 to Christianity by the former. 



This story, having been attributed to St. John of Damascus in 

 the following century, became amazingly popular, and was soon 

 accepted as true : it was translated from the Greek original not 

 only into Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic, but into every 

 important European language, including even Polish, Bohemian, 

 and Icelandic. Thence it came into the pious historical encyclo- 

 paedia of Vincent of Beauvais, and, most important of all, into the 

 Lives of the Saints. 



Hence the name of its pious hero found its way into the list of 

 saints whose intercession is to be prayed for and it passed without 

 challenge until about 1590, when, the general subject of canoniza- 

 tion having been brought up at Rome, Pope Sixtus V, by virtue 

 of his infallibility and immunity against error in everything re- 

 lating to faith and morals, sanctioned a revised list of saints, 

 authorizing and directing it to be accepted by the Church ; and 

 among those on whom the seal of Heaven was thus forever infal- 

 libly set was included " The Holy Saint Josaphat of India, whose 

 wonderful acts St. John of Damascus has related." The 27th of 

 November was appointed as the day set apart in honor of this 



